Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines Multimedia Tour & Virtual Tour

RESEARCH BACKGROUND In an unprecedented pairing, Keith Haring | Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines considered intersections in the life and art of two of contemporary art’s most significant artists. The exhibition was accompanied by a multimedia tour which, when CV-19 closed the NGV’s doors, became the foundation for a ‘virtual tour’, the NGV’s first such project. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION My 11,500-word script was the foundation for the multimedia and virtual tours. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE This was a complex project because both artists are highly mythologised with competing accounts of their life and work and an often-sensationalised approach to their lives and early deaths. My use of direct quotation from the artists and their contemporaries was a strategy for representing competing perspectives. The narration by Patti Astor, gallerist and friend to both, continued the strategy of primary accounts and also, through structured moments inviting her insights, enabled new contributions to scholarship. The script was peer-reviewed by Patti Astor; Miranda Wallace, NGV’s Senior Curator – International Exhibition Projects; the Keith Haring Foundation; and the Basquiat Estate. My script was also a creative attempt to bring the two artists and their friendship to life. Its success was demonstrated when The Keith Haring Foundation described the script as “compelling and insightful” and Patti Astor emailed, “just love it – I know Keith and Jean are very happy with it”. More than 12,000 people hired devices onsite, but audience increases significantly through (uncounted) downloads for both tours from the microsite. Both tours continue online in English, Mandarin, Auslan and transcript versions. My techniques for writing for a spatialised interior experience are informed by and, in turn, contribute to the Interior Design discipline.